Geddes Institute Task Force on Cities & their Regions

Patrick Geddes, Think globally act locally.

The 6 Cities of Scotland seen from an altitude of 1 kilometre, using Google Earth coordinates. Copyright Google Earth.

Scottish cities share characteristics with regional cities across Europe, including identities that are bound up with their unique relations to their regions, complex local and global networks, conflicts between regional development environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness, resource management and the like. We aim to agree a statement outlining the issues and questions facing Scottish cities and their regions today, with a view to focusing and contextualising future funded research in urbanism.

We provisionally tender the following 8 categories as the basis for thought and action:

Sustainable Development & Energy

The Economy & Economic Competitiveness

Social Justice

Environmental Quality, including resource and waste management

Design

Transport & Infrastructure Networks

Policy & Legislation

Integration of city planning, local ecology, and livelihood

The Task Force includes key participants from Scottish government, local authorities in Scotland and England, urban design practice, industry, the professions and professional bodies, and universities across Scotland, and from Europe, including England, Norway, and Spain.

To download the report of the inaugural Symposium, which took place Monday 06 April 2009 in the University of Dundee School of Architecture, and which included a program of national and international speakers:

As a development from the Symposium, the Geddes Institute in consultation with Architecture + Design Scotland, completed a pilot study (June 2009) for a larger research project which will look at sustainable planning and design guidelines in the 32 Scottish local authorities. To download the Report: